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Monday Matchup Writing Challenge: Valentine's Day Edition

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Write a story featuring an unexpected first date, an allergy, and a foot stool.

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My husband Glenn and I had been married for 13 years. I had met Glenn through my grandmother, Maryann and her second husband Roy. Glenn was his youngest son. Roy had ran a Ready Mix in Lake County, Mt for some years, and Glenn grew up in the concrete business, and became a concrete finisher.
This was Glenn and I’s second marriage, and we both had two children each, a boy and girl from previous marriages. We started out living in a trailer with him working for a friend in the concrete business, and in 1994 we went out on our own, got our first home through FHA.
We built a beautiful home and shop in 1999 on property we bought, and ran a succesful concrete construction business. Because of our inner twined marriage we had close family ties between his family and mine, and enjoyed many happy family times.
Our marriage had the normal strains from life, and from being owners of a busy company. We employed family, such as, his eldest son, Jeremiah, and my eldest son, Joseph, my brother inlaw Dale, our son in-law Mike, and my nephew Daniel. We had two crews running all the time and were very busy. His father had died in 1997 which devastated the family and brought problems between the family’s grown children, and I took on the responsiblity of looking out for my grandmother through these years, and in 2002 I had decided I wanted to become a writer in the midst of my busy life.
My husband had problems in his past with drugs, but he’d been clean and sober for ten years, but alcohol crept in, along with the occassional joint. I had not thought too much of it, because he worked hard and desevered to relax. I’d thought we had a strong marriage, and that we’d came along ways in our life with what we’d built together, and thought we had a close family life.
Febuary 14th 2004, on that night he took me out to a nice dinner at a popular resturant in town, and we came home and watched the Note Book, we cried together and spoke of how we would grow old together, and watch our grandchildern grow up. It was a very emotional night, I’d thought in my heart of hearts. I was proud of our love, and our lives and what we had accomplished together.
It was five nights later that I had found out he was having an affair with one of our former employees younger girl friend. My heart was devastated to say the least, and I was shocked at how five days after the beautiful valentines we’d spent had really ment nothing. My heart was crushed, and I’d felt like I’d lived through a death. That summer in June we divorced, but the care taker that I am I went back.
We tried getting everything back on track, counseling, along with help from a church member. I felt responsible for our company, as I was our secretary, and we employed family members. My mind was always on holding everything together, for the best of our family and business.
The following year in 2005, we shared another Valentines, and to my dismay he’d found another woman to have a affair with, a year to the same date, five days after valentines. I struggled along trying to not feel so damned angery. I forgave again, and we had remarried in May, a double wedding with my daughter in Las Vegas. It was actually a beautiful day for reuniting our vows of love and forgiveness.
I’d became a grandmother in November, my daughter went through a stressful pregnancy, which I helped her through, along with my grandmothers worsening heath conditions. That December my grandmother died which added to my heartbreak and misery,as I loved my grandmother dearly and was her favorite grandaughter, but she got to see her great, great grandaughter and we got to have a five generation picture taken of all us girls together. My emotions were running a muck with me through all this too say the least. Surpressed anger, and suffering loss time and again.
2006 I struggled for sanity as his addictions became worse with cocaine use. His behavior becoming crazier, rantings, and accusations. The roller coaster ride making me more sick, and myself esteem crumbled into nothing. My heart and mind struggled for love, and belife in love, which faded into anger and hurt as his denial became worse and worse.
Finally in October of 2006 I released myself from the bonds of feeling responsible for him, his addictions, and of our business. The horrific roller coaster ride came to a stop, and I weakly kept myself going on wobbly legs. I left the marriage with almost next to nothing, only wanting my sanity back. Oh the anger was incrediable, and I fought with myslef for feeling hateful things, guilt ate at me often.
I have struggled with the hurt from our loss, and have watched him lose our home and his business through these past four years. I remarried in 2009, and I am thankful for finding a new love, but valentines will never be the same for me in my head and heart. The scares, I hope will eventually leave me and heal over. So today, I find myself reluctantly visiting in the past, and try to not let myself feel melencholy.